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Sophomore forward Roydell Brown had 16 points and eight rebounds while four-star Memphis signee Dominic Magee finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists as Helen Cox survived a last second thriller, 63-61, against McDonogh 35 at home Monday night.

With McDonogh35 leading 59-58 with less than a minute to go Kajon Brown, who finished with 11 points and two steals, made one-of-two free throws to tie the score at 59. On his final attempt, however, Cox’s Roydell Brown grabbed the rebound for a put-back score giving the Cougars a 61-59 advantage.

Roneagles guard Tyree Hymes (10 points, four assists) sprinted down court on the next possession and tied the game yet again at 61 on a scoop layup with 12 seconds remaining, but with the clock dwindling down Cougars’ guard Marlin Veal maneuvered his way inside and nailed the winning shot to the eruption of the Cougars sideline.

“Coach always tells me to keep calm in pressure situation and I kept my composure and made the basket,” said Veal, who finished with 12 points and five steals. “This was a real physical game and we had to fight through a lot of stuff, but we keep grinding and grinding and (wins) like this happen.”

Cox’s defensive intensity picked up in the second quarter as the Cougars went on a 20-11 run to take a 14-point halftime advantage.

The second-half was a different story, however, as McDonogh 35 decided to bet everything on a full court trapping zone to disrupt Cox’s offensive flow. The change in strategy worked and the Roneagles went on a 18-9 run to begin the period and headed to the fourth down just five (45-40).

Despite an apparent size-advantage, the Cougars (5-1) out-rebounded McDonough 35 (5-2) by double-digits in the first half. They did a better job after intermission, but Cox seemed to get every critical rebound including the one that won the game.

“That’s just heart, that’s all heart,” said Magee. “On the last possession a 5-foot-8 guard goes inside and scores. That’s called heart.

“It was just a team-effort and my teammates stepped up and in the clutch they made it happen. I couldn’t have done it without him.”

Cox Coach Tyron Mouzon said he needs Magee to be the leader of this team in his final season and his leadership on the court in the victory showed.

“He's a senior going off to college so he needs to play like a Division-1 commitment and lead by example,” said Mouzon. “I think we got a lot of pieces and I think we have a nice mixture of experience and youth on our team, so I’m expecting us to do some good things.”

Leading the youth movement is 6-foot-6 Roydell Brown who has already shown in this young season that he can rebound with the best of them.

“They didn’t box me out too well (tonight) so I had to do it for the team and I had some easy rebounds,” said Brown. “Winning like this feels great. It’s awesome and I played the best game of my life.”

The Roneagles will have to rebound better the rest of the season because they undoubtedly have the size to do so.

“We worked on boxing them out our whole (previous) practice so that isn’t an excuse,” said Hymes who was upset with himself because it was his man who scored the winning basket. “I made the bucket (to tie the game) and I tried to get back but I gave (Veal) the lane and he made a tough shot because he’s a good player.”